Sunburn festival has Goa political parties in a twist

Mayabhushan Nagvenkar

13 December 2012

Panaji, Dec 13 (IANS) Sunburn, one of India's biggest electronic dance music (EDM) festivals, starts in Goa later this month but already appears to have inspired the state's leaders into doing a political twist.

While the opposition Congress party accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- led coalition government of going out of its way to support the beach festival, the state tourism minister said that a final decision on this was yet to be taken.

"Sunburn festival is held during Christmas-New Year period in Candolim. There is so much traffic chaos and confusion, how can the BJP give permission for such a festival in Goa's already most crowded area? This is a recipe for disaster," Congress spokesperson Sudip Tamhankar said.

The state government was "under pressure" to grant permission to the organisers of the festival, he added.

Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said no formal permission had been granted for allowing the Sunburn music festival yet, but added that the state government's single window committee for tourism would take a call on the issue.

"The decision will be given in two days. That is when the finalisation will happen. The organisers had in fact applied in June 2012 for permission," Parulekar said.

The minister further said that the state government was not averse to asking the organisers to relocate the festival from Candolim, the crowded north Goa beach belt where the festival has been traditionally held, to a relatively quieter south Goa venue.

"Goa is not a big place. If it happens in south Goa there should not be a problem. It is only 30 km away. The difference is only one hour," he told IANS.

Incidentally, when the festival was held in Goa in 2010, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, then an opposition leader, had said that drugs were openly sold at the music festival, a charge which the organisers denied.

Parrikar's accusation came after a young girl from Bangalore collapsed and died at the festival venue. A post-mortem report later revealed that 23-year-old Meha Bahuguna had died of a drug overdose.